About Us

Jane had in her possession, a fantastic chocolate brownie recipe that would come out of the cupboard for the occasional dinner party or special event. After many compliments and encouragements to do something more with the recipe, she eventually overcame her initial resistance and lack of self-confidence. She allowed her agonising frustration with believing there must be more to her life than cleaning other people’s toilets to be a positive force and decided to see if she could use the brownies as a vehicle to fulfilling her ultimate dream of making a difference in this world by helping children at risk. View the Viva website.

Much of her inspiration for this has came from Old Testament scriptures as well as a desire to raise the bar for her children to go for their dreams, fulfil their potential and be all they can be.

Throughout this paradigm shift in Jane’s thinking, her husband Paul constantly encouraged and convinced her that this idea of selling her high quality chocolate brownies to eventually get into a position to make a difference in children’s lives could really work.

The business was formally started in March, 2005, when Jane began baking her brownies from home in a tiny oven, after securing her first order from a friend. The initial plan was to try and sell them to local fish and chip shops as well as fellow mums outside the school gates on Friday afternoons. This venture however, never materialised, as a friend mentioned the brownies to a local tearoom and before she knew it, Jane was supplying 40 brownies every week to them! In no time at all it seemed, the customer base grew as Jane and Paul drove around Brighton and Hove (with kids in tow!) dropping off samples and following up a few days later.